The hair lacked any hint of yellow or orange or green that we’re used to seeing, but there was center Mark Smith taking part in his first skate with the Calgary Flames at HP Pavilion on Saturday morning.

It’s been a poorly kept non-secret for a day or so that the Flames were going to sign the popular ex-Shark, who just happened to be in San Jose after failing to land an NHL contract with the Rangers earlier in the week.

“I can’t think of a better place to start it off,” said Smith, 29, who will be on a line with Stephane Yelle and Marcus Nilson when the Flames play the Sharks tonight in San Jose’s final exhibition game. “I’m excited to play my old teammates and give them a hard time.” Continue Reading →

. . . you would have seen that Ron Wilson stayed with the same lines he had out on the ice the previous day (see earlier post).

Plihal didn’t skate and Torrey Mitchell tested his ailing foot after most of the other skaters had left the ice.

One highlight: Who needs a Zamboni? Assistant coach Tim Hunter used a shovel to clear off a portion of the ice where he and several players were working on corner drills — a classic pond hockey maneuver.

… You would have noticed that the mixing and matching of linemates continued, though Ron Wilson did place Patrick Marleau on the ice with Joe Thornton and Jonathan Cheechoo once again.

The other forward combinations? Michalek-Roenick-Setoguchi, Clowe-Pavelski-Bernier, Rissmiller-Goc-Grier and Kaspar-Brown-Mink. Missing the action were Mitchell and Plihal, still recovering from injuries sustained in Tuesday night’s game in Calgary. Continue Reading →

You think there’s been pressure on the Sharks to win the Stanley Cup, pressure they didn’t really respond very well to the last couple seasons? Hah, that was nothing.

This is pressure:

The folks at EA Sports put their NHL08 game through a full-season simulation and determined that — drum roll, please — the Sharks will end up as 2008 Stanley Cup champions, defeating Pittsburgh in six games.

“Awesome,” said Sharks captain Patrick Marleau after Thursday’s practice, not sounding at all worried about having expectations elevated once again. “Nice. That sounds like a good scenario.” Continue Reading →

Sharks are practicing later than usual today after splitting two exhibition games in Canada, so let me catch you up on that strange news item that broke last week about San Jose sending players and coaches to China to compete on a Beijing team in the all-Asia league.

Well, not exactly. No actual Sharks players or prospects — present or past — will be in China taking on teams from Japan and Korea. Continue Reading →

So far this pre-season, the Hockey News has had somewhat of a San Jose fixation.

The cover story in its Sept. 18 issue posed “100 Burning Questions” in need of answers and #1 on that list was, “Can Joe Thornton lead the Sharks to a Cup?”

This week, the publication’s web site provides an answer: A Hockey News poll of its 30 correspondents (plus 10 other columnists and writers) predicts this is the year that San Jose finally wins it all. Continue Reading →

Thomas Greiss gets his second chance to dazzle his coaches tonight in Vancouver and if you go strictly by the numbers, he’d need to have a truly bad night in net to lose out to Dimitri Patzold in their competition to become Evgeni Nabokov’s back-up. After all, Patzold was in nets for that 6-5 OT loss in Los Angeles to open the exhibition season. And even though Patzold did better Saturday night against the Canucks, allowing only one goal, he faced a paltry 10 shots.

Greiss? All he did was shut out the Ducks in Anaheim in what was a 0-0 game until late in the third period.

But Ron Wilson factors in more than GAA. He also considers how far along a goalie is in his development, and that could give Patzold a big advantage.Continue Reading →

Before training camp began, Sharks Coach Ron Wilson said one of his three top priorities was to see if it made sense to start the season with Patrick Marleau as the left wing on the Thornton-Cheechoo line.Â

During Monday’s two-hour practice, the team’s two top offensive threatsÂ played alongside each other for the first time since camp opened.

“Again, we’re trying different people with different groups to just see where the chemistry lies,”Â Wilson said. “That’s about all it is.”

Then he came up with a second reason: “To keep the bloggers guessing.”Â

Other line combinations on the ice Monday were Clowe-Mitchell-Setoguchi, Rissmiller-Pavelski-Grier and Kaspar-Brown-Roenick,